FU2: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

Hello,

Some months ago, I noticed some changes in the newsgroups search
results provided by Google.

First, I found the number of hits very small compared to what I was
used to. Second, many of these hits are part of the same thread, which
was not the case before. Finally, a search for some of my own posts
made 2 years ago was unsuccessful.

This morning, I made a simple search ("Excel 2003", without quotes) and
got NO result - which is impossible since my newsreader shows many
posts with these words on the subject line in the last few days only !!

Here's the search url :
http://groups.google.ca/groups/searc...8&q=excel+2003

My Google preferences are set to : french interface, search pages
written in french & english, no safe search filter, 50 results per
page. I tried to change these settings, but at no avail.

Anybody noticed the same problem ? Has an explanation ? A solution
or work around ?

Thanks.

PS: Sorry if this post seems out of topic, but I extensively use
google groups to search many microsoft.public groups for development
and support purposes - and I find very annoying to get fewer and fewer
relevant posts now than the number I got less than one year ago.